The International Longshoremen’s Association broke off talks on a local contract covering work rules and staffing at the Port of New York and New Jersey, clouding prospects for a deal before the ILA’s Feb. 6 contract expiration.
The breakdown came in less than two weeks after a contract extension that averted a coast wide dockworkers’ strike on the weekend before New Year’s Day. Last month’s extension of the union’s coast wide master contract with United States Maritime Alliance cleared the way for parallel negotiation of supplementary local contracts, led by the one covering New York-New Jersey.
It was unclear how the break off would affect federally mediated negotiations set for next week between the ILA and USMX. The ILA and USMX agreed last month on container royalties, the per-ton payments that carriers have made on containerized cargo since the 1960s to support annual cash payouts to longshoremen. The union and employers, however, remain far apart on what appears to be a stickier issue.
NYSA officials have said for more than two years that they planned to use the current negotiations to seek changes in the port’s work rules and practices, some of which predate containerization. Unlike other ports that hire dockworkers in shifts, New York-New Jersey has a “continuous operation” system in which work gangs stay with a ship until its work is completed. The system requires extensive relief staffing, including the hiring of gangs with 15 or 16 members when only nine or 10 are working at a time.
ILA officials walked out shortly after the start of a scheduled two-day bargaining session. Wednesday’s abrupt halt to the New York-New Jersey talks is raising concerns among cargo interests, which are watching the negotiations closely and may have considered the negotiations substantially settled after last month’s master-contract extension.
ILA Walks Out of NY-NJ Talks
The International Longshoremen’s Association broke off talks on a local contract covering work rules and staffing at the Port of New York and New Jersey, clouding prospects for a deal before the ILA’s Feb. 6 contract expiration.
The breakdown came in less than two weeks after a contract extension that averted a coast wide dockworkers’ strike on the weekend before New Year’s Day. Last month’s extension of the union’s coast wide master contract with United States Maritime Alliance cleared the way for parallel negotiation of supplementary local contracts, led by the one covering New York-New Jersey.
It was unclear how the break off would affect federally mediated negotiations set for next week between the ILA and USMX. The ILA and USMX agreed last month on container royalties, the per-ton payments that carriers have made on containerized cargo since the 1960s to support annual cash payouts to longshoremen. The union and employers, however, remain far apart on what appears to be a stickier issue.
NYSA officials have said for more than two years that they planned to use the current negotiations to seek changes in the port’s work rules and practices, some of which predate containerization. Unlike other ports that hire dockworkers in shifts, New York-New Jersey has a “continuous operation” system in which work gangs stay with a ship until its work is completed. The system requires extensive relief staffing, including the hiring of gangs with 15 or 16 members when only nine or 10 are working at a time.
ILA officials walked out shortly after the start of a scheduled two-day bargaining session. Wednesday’s abrupt halt to the New York-New Jersey talks is raising concerns among cargo interests, which are watching the negotiations closely and may have considered the negotiations substantially settled after last month’s master-contract extension.